What Is Unraveling Our Whiteness?

If you’re interested in this work, you are likely aware that there is great urgency to tend to the effects of centuries-long white supremacy and dominance.  How can we as white bodied folks do this without further perpetuating harm, oppression, and violence?  Often we begin this work by trying to read books or take workshops where we might learn valuable information.  But the problematic behavior still persists.  Unraveling creates a space to  actively cultivate and deepen our awareness of the ways in which white supremacy has shaped us and lives in us.  We do this by growing our ability to be curious about our bodily response patterns through accessible movement explorations.  We learn about our nervous systems by practicing somatic/body-based trauma-informed skills, by sharing with and witnessing one another, and through independent investment in self-reflective and creative invitational homework prompts.  

Intention: 

It may feel counterintuitive to center ourselves in a time like this, (part of this work is learning to hold that paradox), but we will only engage in this manner so that we can sense, feel and dialogue together around race without putting unnecessary labor or harm on Black and Indigenous communities and People of Color who may already be experiencing increased stress around racialized trauma.  Please note, this is just one approach and is certainly not the only way.  If you would rather  work in a mixed race space, there are many opportunities and brilliant people of color who are facilitating this type of work such as: Tina Strawn, Dr. Christena Cleveland, Camille Barton, and more. 

However, if you feel compelled to work in a white co-conspirator/creative space where relationality and embodiment are primary, Unraveling may be right for you.  While it is recommended you have a working understanding of systemic racism and oppression, please feel welcome to come exactly as you are.  Our meetings are for the sake of acknowledging current patterns of embodiment/nervous system responses around race and increasing awareness of where and how those show up in our lives and our culture.  We will also be encouraged to try new patterns and practices of relational embodiment aimed toward resilience, adaptability, and collective liberation. 

If you’re white, white-passing or white-identified, this adventure may be for you if you: 

• -believe healing from whiteness cannot be done solely by yourself and are seeking embodied relationship with folks who desire the same

• -are ready and willing to regularly feel and sense into your body’s inherent wisdom in order to -develop somatic awareness around race

• -desire to expand your capacity to feel more 

• -are ready to temporarily set aside what you know cognitively about race in order to prioritize somatic and embodied intelligence

• -are ready and willing to embrace practices of play, creativity, and sitting in mystery/unknown

• -are emotionally aware and mature enough to hold responsibility for your own feelings and are able to be a witness to others feelings without trying to fix or change them

• -are willing to be patient and respectful of the process (for yourself and others)

• -are seeking embodied liberation not only for yourself, but for the whole of our human family (or vice versa)

• -can be tolerant of (or even desire) an emergent flow in our sessions (while we will be rigorous in our practice, we will rarely work from the place of needing to “accomplish an agenda”)

• -want to embody the belief that all lives won’t matter until all black lives matter

• -are ready and willing to accompany other fellow white people regardless of mistakes made or current racial analysis; in other words, are ready to accept the challenge of not giving up on each other as white people committed to cultural healing

What to Expect:

Unraveling is available for groups or individuals and can be done online, in person, or hybrid.  In all settings, we will work with gentle movement, art-making, creative journaling, dialogue, witnessing and more. We will explore and play as a way to cultivate curiosity around what is often very charged and heated. No previous movement experience needed. Here is more of what to expect:

• In All Settings

• -practicing somatic grounding and orienting to the present moment

• -invitations to engage with optional guided self-touch

• -somatic explorations of how we (and/or others) might embody characteristics of whiteness

• -leaning into somatic practices which help us feel our way toward alternative ways of being (other than dominant/superior)

• -invitations to make creative visual reflections and/or guided journaling during and between sessions (these are optional and highly encouraged; please plan to dedicate some concentrated time between sessions so you may attend to your inner work).

• In Group Settings  

• -small group and whole community dialogue for communal verbal and/or kinesthetic processing

• -witnessing self and others in small group “breakout” sessions

Meeting Details and Time Commitment: 

Counter to how we are enculturated, this work takes time and repetition.  To really change our nervous system’s capacity, and repattern our bodies, we must move slowly.  So, while it might be inconvenient, this is not available in an intensive or workshop format.  This is a life-long process and we will never arrive, nor likely live to see the change we wish and work for. That might be difficult to accept, but it is a very helpful way to frame this work so that we do not suffer from burnout.  

Unraveling was originally designed to be completed within a twelve week timeframe in which we meet once weekly and alternate between long and short sessions.  To keep the integrity of this work, we will do our best to meet for at least twelve weeks in a row.  Depending on the scheduling availability of those participating, we can work together to find a schedule that works best for each context.  Regardless of the situation, it is strongly preferred and encouraged that you attend every session so that we may begin to form a sense of togetherness and trust in our relationships. Transforming our own whiteness cannot be done alone, and requires sustained commitment.  Simply put, we need each other!  Should you have to miss a session, it would be appreciated if you could communicate that beforehand.  

Additionally, between sessions, in order to commit to practice, to stay in the flow, and to process what is coming up, participants will be invited and encouraged to engage with practices like creative journaling, art-making, imagining, movement, and more.  Again, these are strongly encouraged, but are not required. (Nothing is required, you are a sovereign ecosystem~all your own~who knows what is best for you!)

Cost/Investment:

I am aware of the harmful transactional nature of this hyper-capitalist culture in which we live and want to be transparent and open about class and issues of accessibility.  I am also aware and can deeply feel the paradoxical nature of accepting money as a white bodied person in order to facilitate work around race.  I am committed to paying 20% of all funds received toward reparations tax. To that end, 20% of the total funds collected will be paid to a black, brown, Asian, and/or indigenous lead group.

While I wish ultimately to abolish money, in the meantime I need to be paid for my labor.  However, since we are not there yet, Unraveling is offered on a sliding scale. I learned about this idea from Sage Hayes and have adapted it from Alexis J. Cunningfolk. If you are interested in this work, please reach out to me so we can discuss this with care.

A Bit About Somatics: I respectfully acknowledge that Somatics (practices of cultivating the awareness and wisdom of the inner felt sense of the body) has largely been stewarded by Asian and Indigenous Cultures.  It is my intention to use my power, access, advantage, and privilege given to me as a white-skinned person to actively compost systems of oppression especially as they pertain to our bodies and to our felt sense of being in the world.  I am actively grappling with themes of dominance and systemic oppression within my lineages of practice.